The Standing Committee of the ISBT Academy
Members of the Standing Committee of the ISBT Academy
Cynthia So-Osman
Cynthia So-Osman finalized her specialism in Internal Medicine, with a subspecialty training in Haematology (2000) and in Transfusion Medicine (2002). She obtained a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Clinical Epidemiology (2008) and obtained her PhD with a thesis titled: “Patient Blood Management in Elective Orthopaedic Surgery” in 2012. Since 2002 she is a Clinical Consultant in Transfusion Medicine at Sanquin Blood Bank at the Dept. of Transfusion Medicine, NL, and she actively participates in Patient Blood Management and COVID-19 related studies. As a Haematology Consultant, she works at Erasmus University Hospital, Rotterdam, NL. She is the past chair of the ISBT Clinical Transfusion Working Party, she is a member of the International Collaborative on Transfusion Medicine Guidelines (ICTMG) and a member of the BEST Collaborative.ISBT Vice President (2024-2028)
Sophie Uyoga
Sophie Uyoga is a research scientist at the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya. She has over 19 years’ research experience in describing the epidemiology of red cell genetic disorders with focus on Sickle cell anemia (SCA). Blood transfusion is one of the key management strategies for management of anemia and acute crises in people living with sickle cell anemia. Her current area of research focuses on understanding the transfusion needs of children with sickle cell anemia and the need for better transfusion strategies so that the transfusions don’t result in the development of alloimmunisation that could result in re-admissions with anemia.
Clotilde Estrada Carsolio
Clotilde Estrada Carsolio is a Medical Technician from National University of Mexico and worked as a Blood Bank Laboratory Chief at Children’s Hospital of Mexico and the National Blood Transfusion Centre (Health Secretary, Mexico).Previously, she was president of Mexican Association of Transfusion Medicine (Mexico). Clotilde is president of Blooders.org ( a Not for profit NGO that educates, promotes and facilitates the voluntary and regular donation of blood through technology) Mexico.
Sally Lam Tsuey Peng
Sally Lam currently holds the position of Scientific Officer (Microbiology) at the Department of Pathology, Hospital Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia. She has 8 years work experience in Transfusion Microbiology at National Blood Centre Kuala Lumpur and 10 years work experience to now mainly in serology and virology including transplant molecular. She works a lot on the quality assurance implementation based on ISO 15189 accreditation in the lab. She is also the Honorary Secretary of Malaysian Blood Transfusion Society since 2013 actively organising various educational events at national level such as National Transfusion Medicine Conferences, Immunohaematology Workshops, Patient Blood Management Workshops, Seminars in Blood Donor, Transfusion Medicine Quality and Transfusion Transmitted Disease Infection.
Ratti Ram Sharma
Ratti Ram Sharma (MD) is currently Head of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research,Chandigarh, India. He has been working in the specialty for last 25 years and has keen interest in Apheresis, Stem Cell biology, blood component quality control and clinical transfusion practice. He has been instrumental in developing the curriculum for M.D. Transfusion Medicine programme in the Institute and established an active therapeutic apheresis and Bone Marrow processing unit in the department and received “Advancing apheresis technology runner-up award” from Terumo Caridian BCT, USA in 2014. Has been recipient of prestigious JR Jolly (2014) & H.D. Shourie (2008) awards of the Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohematology for his scientific research & innovative ideas in the field of Transfusion Medicine. Certificate of distinction from the University of Minnesota as a special research fellow in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, USA for his active participation in academic & research activities. He is the Member of WHO Advisory group on Blood safety. He is the Member of National blood safety and hemovigilance programme implementation working groups. He has more than 100 publications both in National and International Journals.
Dina Ekram Shabaan
Dina has more than 20 years of experience in the field of Transfusion Medicine and Transfusion Transmitted Infections screening. She joined the Egyptian National Blood Transfusion Services in 2003. For more than 17 years of work experience, she continued to hold several positions within the National Blood Transfusion Center. She was Head of the Serology Department in the Egyptian National Blood Transfusion Services for more than 6 years. In parallel, she has been actively involved in teaching and training since 2006 being a laboratory cascade trainer in the Egyptian-Swiss project for restructuring the Egyptian Blood Transfusion Services, as well as a cascade trainer for the appropriate clinical use of blood since 2011. She has also been a lecturer for the Egyptian Fellowship Board for Transfusion Medicine for more than 5 years, was a member of the Hepatitis Virus Surveillance Task force-WHO and CDC in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Health for 3 years. As of 2021 she was elected as the coordinator of the Arab Speaking Countries Transfusion Forum (ATMF) and is a member of the ISBT since 2009 and is also a member in the ISBT Transfusion Transmitted Infections Working Party.
Marion Vermeulen
ISBT Regional Director Africa (2024-2028)
Marion Vermeulen is the Executive: Transfusion Medicine and Technical Services at the South African National Blood service (SANBS). She has worked for most of her 35 years in Transfusion Transmissible Infections. Her current role consists of the development of the SANBS strategy with direct responsibility for the donation screening, processing, crossmatching, issuing, transportation and logistics of 1 million donations per annum. She obtained her PhD from Stellenbosch University in advancements of transfusion safety with regards to Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTI). She is an active member of the international society for blood transfusion (ISBT) TTID working party and is the chairperson of the I TRY IT program that provides mentorship to young early career researchers through the ISBT.
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Sandra Taddei Nance
Sandra Nance is Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania, Division of Transfusion Medicine & Therapeutic Pathology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and a guest lecturer at the post-graduate program at the Diego Portales University in Chile. She co-chairs the AABB Awards Committee, is a member of the Standing Committee of the ISBT Academy and Working Party on Immunohematology and also is a mentor in the ISBT Mentoring Program and an advisor to the ISBT Working Party on Rare Donors. She provided leadership to the American Rare Donor Program, American Red Cross National Laboratories including Blood Group Serology, Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, Molecular Testing, Neutrophil and Specialized Testing. She engineered the nationalized American Red Cross SBB Program. Her master’s degree in Pathology is from the University of Maryland and her SBB from The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. She is named to Halls of Fame by the ASCP and AABB. Ms. Nance is a former Editor in Chief of the Immunohematology Journal of Blood Group Serology and Molecular Genetics. She developed polyethylene glycol (PEG) method for serologic testing and the monocyte monolayer assay (MMA) used by the National Reference Laboratory for Blood Group Serology (NRLBGS) to predict in vivo survival of transfused incompatible red cells. She initiated the International MMA Training classes at the NRLBGS.
Active in education, she has been faculty for American Red Cross, Diego Portales University, National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Thomas Jefferson Medical School, University of Maryland, and University of Pennsylvania, She has authored or co-authored over 50 papers, over 200 abstracts, edited 9 books and given over 250 invited lectures for local, national and international societies.
Syeldy Langi Sasongko
Syeldy obtained her Research Master’s in Global Health at Vrije University, Amsterdam in 2017 and began working at Sanquin, the Dutch national blood bank, shortly thereafter. Syeldy is a qualitative and mixed-methods researcher and completed her PhD at Sanquin studying how blood banks change during times of uncertainty. She has participated in a BEST collaborative project on immunoglobulins and worked for the European Hematology Association in the SUPPLY project Work Package 6. She was the former European representative of the ISBT Young Professionals Council (YPC), chairwoman from 2022-2023, and loves helping the young professionals community.
